Don Giovanni from Aix

Conductor: Jérémie Rhorer
Production: Jean-François Sivadier

Don Giovanni: Philippe Sly
Leporello:  Nahuel di Pierro
Donna Anna: Eleonora Buratto
Don Ottavio: Pavol Breslik
Donna Elvira: Isabel Leonard
Zerlina: Julie Fuchs
Masetto: Krzysztof Baczyk
Il Commendatore:  David Leigh

What if Don Giovanni is a silly person and is just larking about?  And what if Leporello is the one who stabs the Commendatore, accidentally, of course? Is this the Don Giovanni I've been searching for?  This is the great Mozart opera from Aix-en-Provence.

There are period costumes, sort of, and props and makeup, but no sets to speak of. Leporello seems to be in on everything more than is usually the case.    Zerlina is sufficiently sexy.  Donna Elvira is a complete bitch.  DG jumps around a lot more than anyone would think possible for an opera singer.  Don Ottavio, a serious young man, comes to the party with a gun.  Viva la liberta.  This is like an orgy, but the girls look dubious.  Donna Elvira makes off with the gun.

Donna Anna, Don Giovanni, Donna Elvira

Toward the end of the intermission the Don comes out in more or less modern clothing and offers flowers to a woman in the front row.  He's scanning the audience for more candidates.  He waves.  The orchestra is back so he's looking them over.  He claps for the conductor.  Leporello is in modern clothing, too.

Elvira enters with a shorter skirt, followed by her servant carrying the gun.  The Don and Leporello exchange silly wigs.  They don't look much alike.  Leporello has tattoos, Don Giovanni doesn't.  This is completely satisfying my desire for a Don Giovanni in a comedy staging.  The best singing is from the women.

Masetto shows up in the audience with a gun which he waves around.  I see now that this is as close to a comedy as it can get.  Some of the characters, Ottavio, Anna, Elvira, are serious to the core.  We have here corrupt young men going wild.  Giovanni strips down to his underwear at the end.  There is some nudity.

I completely bought it.  Don Giovanni may now return to being a serious opera.
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Don Giovanni from San Francisco

     Leporello, Donna Elvira, Donna Anna, Don Ottavio, Don Giovanni

Conductor:  Marc Minkowski  *
Director:  Jacopo Spirei

Leporello:  Erwin Schrott  *
Donna Anna:  Erin Wall *
Don Giovanni:  Ildebrando D'Arcangelo *
The Commendatore:  Andrea Silvestrelli
Don Ottavio: Stanislas de Barbeyrac *
Donna Elvira:  Ana María Martínez
Zerlina:  Sarah Shafer
Masetto:  Michael Sumuel

At the San Francisco Opera we have gone suddenly from a performance with 5 Adler Fellows to one with 5 debuts (*) and no Adler Fellows.  The debuts include the great conductor Marc Minkowski, Erwin Schrott and Ildebrando D'Arcangelo.  You can see this is something of a big event.

The production and Minkowski's conducting went well together.  Both moved briskly and smoothly from scene to scene with no hesitation.  With these wonderful singers our conductor brought us a masterful performance.  The only problem with the production from our viewpoint in the balcony was that it was filled with shiny screens that reflected the lights from the pit rather than the projected images.  Perhaps something could be done to reduce their shininess.

Schrott and D'Arcangelo are a magnificent pair.  Never was Giovanni such an arrogant asshole, and never was Leporello such a genius of comic timing.  We laughed.

The ladies were also beautiful though very serious.  Erin Wall whom I know from performances at Santa Fe was an elegant Donna Anna.  Ana Maria Martinez who recently sang here in Don Carlo was magnificent and intense as Donna Elvira.  Sarah Shafer made a youthful Zerlina.

________________________________
Footnote:

It seemed to me that this Don Giovanni was longer than usual, that I was hearing things I didn't usually hear.  The talk seemed longer and more detailed.  So I called the opera, and yes, there were a number of restored recitatives that are usually cut.  Perhaps Minkowski wanted this.  I like that I noticed this.

Nasty Don Giovanni

Conductor:  Fabio Luisi
Production:  Michael Grandage

CHARACTERS FROM THE UPPER CLASS

Don Giovanni:  Simon Keenlyside (baritone)
Donna Anna:  Hibla Gerzmava  (soprano)
Commendatore, Anna's father:  Kwangchul Youn (bass)
Don Ottavio, Anna's fiance:  Paul Appleby (tenor)
Donna Elvira:  Malin Byström (soprano)

CHARACTERS FROM THE LOWER CLASS

Leporello, Giovanni's servant:  Adam Plachetka  (baritone)
Zerlina:  Serena Malfi  (soprano)
Masetto, Zerlina's fiance:  Matthew Rose  (baritone)

Mozart's Don Giovanni premiered in Prague in 1787 which, I have recently learned, was enjoying a Don Juan vogue at the time.

Nasty is the word of the week, and it seemed suitable for this somewhat raunchy Don Giovanni from the Metropolitan Opera in HD.  General reaction:  Oh, THAT'S what it's about.  Don Giovanni is about sex, a subject we are getting rather a lot of this year.  The Don seems not to focus on certain areas for his sex crimes.  He covers the gamut of entitled male animal.  We have to say that Da Ponte seems to know rather a lot about his subject.  He also knew enough to leave the sex scenes ambiguous so we don't quite know what happened.  We are thus spared the phony sex scenes that permeate modern opera productions.

I didn't mind the drab production this time because the characters filled it so vividly.  The Don begins at the bottom with rape and murder.  He enters Donna Anna's bedroom while she is sleeping, and she awakens to fight him off.  If we take the libretto at its face, she is successful in fighting him off, unless we assume he raped her while she was asleep.  Her father comes in, and Don Giovanni kills him.  There is an amazing piece of blocking where the Don leans over the Commendatore and raises his hand in the air to represent the Commendatore's soul flying away at the moment of death.  Wow.  This is not Don Giovanni as Austin Powers, as I have often imagined, but rather a deeply evil Don.  This Don Giovanni will not escape his doom.  Don Ottavio vows to avenge the Commendatore.

I appreciated Simon's comment that Don Giovanni lies between the American and the French Revolutions.  I separated the characters by class because this would have been what mattered most in the era.  The entitled upper class who in the American Revolution lived across an ocean were still the target.  We sent them back home.  The French Revolution solved the problem by cutting off their heads.  In the opera God intervenes.

Don Giovanni is never far from a woman.  When Donna Elvira appears, Giovanni starts to seduce her until he sees who it is.  He comes upon a wedding party, and from all the women present he chooses to pursue the bride.  He serenades Donna Elvira's maid, and may actually have been successful here.  We don't hear if he was successful.

The first time they go to Don Giovanni's house the singers are actually dancing.  Not well, but dancing.  The second time we are in the Don's house, his first course at dinner consists of fruit being eaten off of a woman's stomach.  In case you had forgotten what the opera was about.  After Giovanni descends into hell, Donna Elvira says,  "I will go into a nunnery."  Zerlina and Masetto say,  "And we will go home to dinner."  Favorite line.  Nothing so trivial as sex will bother us.  In the lower classes women are not traded for political advantage.

I want to discuss the performers.  Simon Keenlyside was a physical dynamo, though clearly no longer young, his Don Giovanni pursued women with fascinating energy.  I enjoyed his performance.  Paul Appleby was just the right singer for Ottavio with a beautiful Mozart legato.  He is young and will grow into his roles.  Hibla Gerzmava has a huge voice that roared over the ensemble.  We could hear her in some Verdi.  Adam Plachetka's Leporello was very genuine and funny.  I liked him, and find that I saw him before in Marriage of Figaro from Salzburg in 2015.  Malin Byström was our Jenufa in San Francisco last Spring.  I thought she was a strong performer.  My only disappointment was the Zerlina of Serena Malfi.  I absolutely adored Mojca Erdmann's Zerlina the last time we saw this production.  It was my impression that Serena did not want to take her eyes off the conductor.  I'm going to be annoying and give advice:  sing with the music. 

We all enjoyed this and felt we understood Don Giovanni as never before.

Salzburg Don Giovanni

Conductor:  Christoph Eschenbach

Donna Anna:  Lenneke Ruiten
Donna Elvira:  Anett Fritsch
Zerlina:  Valentina Nafornita
Don Giovanni:  Ildebrando D’Arcangelo
Leporello:  Luca Pisaroni
Il Commendatore:  Tomasz Konieczny
Don Ottavio:  Andrew Staples
Masetto:  Alessio Arduini

Lots of goodies are streaming from Salzburg on medici.tv this year.  I don't know how you tell if they are charging, but if you start it running and it doesn't stop, that means it's free. 

Right now I am watching Don Giovanni.  They all appear to be in a hotel together with the characters staying in different rooms.  One of the groups of guests is getting married:  Zerlina and Masetto.   Donna Elvira comes in with her suitcase.  She is checking in.  What a great idea.  Two of the women, Zerlina and Donna Elvira, are wearing modern wedding dresses.  Donna Elvira has just come from marrying Don Giovanni, I imagine.  For me this absolutely works.

You see there's always a problem with this opera that every little bit seems to be in a different place.  So we end up with 10 or 12 sets, like the Met checkerboard.  So why not put the opera in an environment where the set stays the same and the people occupying it change?  I think the designer must be someone who spends a lot of time in hotels.

This Leporello just seems to follow DG around and goose all the same girls.  He isn't viewing his master with alarm--he's trying to get in on the action.  This reduces the complexity of his character.  

Recitative is on the piano.

One problem is that the girls are all about the same age and build, making them difficult to tell apart as their costumes change.

In the second half our newlyweds do a mostly striptease in the lobby.  When I'm up wandering around in a hotel at night, I put on a lot more than these girls.  Now they are placing a bust of the Commendatore in the lobby.  This is actually fascinating.  For my requirement that the production needs to explain the plot it is aces.  Our Giovanni and Leporello are quite the pair, more interesting together than apart.  This is the first time I've thought that Giovanni was actually the main character.  I usually feel that he is upstaged by Leporello and the girls.  Excellent.  Congratulations.  It's only suitable that it should be at Salzburg.

They poison the Don.  Donna Elvira becomes a nun.

Irresistable

These guys are in Baden Baden for Don Giovanni.  The picture is by Catherine Pisaroni.  The cast is Erwin Schrott as Don Giovanni (right), Luca Pisaroni as Leporello (left), Anna Netrebko as Donna Anna, Charles Castronovo as Don Ottavio (hat), Jonathan Lemalu as Masetto (second from left) and Malena Ernman as Donna Elvira.  It must be cold.  I am taken with Schrott's fashion statement--bare chest, jacket with fur collar.  Hmmm. 

I am starting to wish I was rich.

What Netrebko is up to

This is her Donna Anna at La Scala. Of course.  It's sort of Mozart as Wagner, don't you think?

I'm the person who gives advice.  Right?  My sense of Anna at the present time is that her aerobic conditioning is insufficient. I know she used to run in Central Park and can't help wondering if she is keeping this up.  Taking the baby to the park isn't the same thing.  You may resume ignoring me.

Don Giovanni in HD

Don Giovanni............Mariusz Kwiecien
Donna Anna..............Marina Rebeka
Don Ottavio.............Ramón Vargas
Donna Elvira............Barbara Frittoli
Leporello...............Luca Pisaroni
Zerlina.................Mojca Erdmann
Masetto.................Joshua Bloom
Commendatore............Stefan Kocán

Conductor...............Fabio Luisi
Production..............Michael Grandage

One of my long time wishes came true in the Live from the Metropolitan in HD broadcast of Don Giovanni on Saturday. I have always wished for a very sexy and aware Zerlina, one who truly meant "vorrai e non vorrai" [I want, and I don't want], where you could see it in her eyes. I wanted to feel the moment when she pauses and finally says "andiam." [we go]  I wanted the vision of her full participation in the seduction. I got her in Mojca Erdmann's Zerlina. She was perfect.

This was an excellent production for a number of reasons. Don Giovanni is hard to stage unless you just bail on the whole thing and stick with a bare stage. The scene is constantly shifting. In this production the stage pictures were pleasing and moved smoothly and easily from scene to scene. This version by Michael Grandage was very comprehensible and well thought out. And the death scene was the best ever.

The cast was well matched, but I felt that the Leperello of Luca Pisaroni stole the show from Mariusz Kwiecien [pronounced KVEE-chen, according the the New York Times, although Renée Fleming seemed to be saying something slightly different] as the Don. Mariusz has a pretty face so we forgive him the dastardly deeds. He showed no effects of his back crisis of only two weeks ago.

The rest of the cast, which included Barbara Frittoli and Ramon Vargas, was also excellent. Vargas is a wonderful singer, but I hated the fact that he sang his whole first aria sotto voce. Sotto voce is a stunt, something done only for a specific effect, and not real singing at all. More than a single phrase is too much. This is a recent phenomenon, and I refuse to just give in and ignore it. It must be weeded out.

Fabio Luisi conducted from the harpsichord where he played the secco recitatives. He explained in the intermission that it is easier for him to keep the music flowing from the harpsichord. Everything worked together to create a Don Giovanni of incredible dramatic effectiveness.


[See Kinderkuchen History 1780-1803]

Giovanni in Red

Don Giovanni was the last of my five straight nights of opera at Santa Fe. The set was done all in red, even the trees. Donna Elvira was also all in red. It wasn't too much red for me. Dramatically it worked quite well, and I don't really feel like writing about all the details.

For me this was the best night overall for singing. In order of my preference:

Susanna Phillips as Donna Elvira. I liked her sound and her feeling. She was a Santa Fe Opera apprentice in 2004.

Kate Lindsey as Zerlina. She is billed as a mezzo but didn't sound heavy at all. She was an apprentice in 2003.

Elza van den Heever as Donna Anna. Her voice is big without being heavy and dominates the ensembles.

Lucas Meachem as Don Giovanni. He fought the current trend and didn't take his shirt off.

Matthew Rose as Leporello.

Other people liked Charles Workman as Don Ottavio better than I did. He seemed to be trying to darken his voice more than I like for Mozart. He seems to be the guy that sang Jupiter to Cecilia Bartoli's Semele in Zurich.

After five days of opera, it is hard to form opinions any more. Lawrence Renes conducted.

[See Kinderkuchen History 1780-1803]